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“Oh, yes, if he was the one that was mentioned, I did hear him, even if I couldn’t see him. He’s from the United Netherlands. I recall his slight accent—it was very hard to place. Flawless English, though.” Her look pinned Victoria. “You said you talked to him? How did you manage that without interference?”
“The crush was helpful in more ways than one. I managed to escape Uncle Reiner’s watch and made my way out onto the terrace. He was out there.”
Eva’s lips lifted in a conspirator’s smile. “Good for you. And imagine the wonder that the world didn’t collapse as your father and Reiner would have us all believe.”
Victoria laughed. “I know, he was—”
A brutalized scream pierced through the air from outside the carriage, cutting her words, and then the coach lurched to one side, sending both Victoria and Eva slamming into the side wall.
Hell.They were up on two wheels, teetering.
Crashing.
{ Chapter 4 }
Victoria twisted, trying to scramble up her bench just as Eva did opposite her.
More weight needed.
Weight onto the side of the carriage that was flying through the air.
The coach rocked, indecisive on whether it was going to crash onto its side at full speed or right itself.
Victoria wedged her foot onto the carriage wall, pushing up while she flattened her chest onto the cushioned bench shifting higher, her hands pressing down where her torso couldn’t.
Teetering. Teetering.
All at once, gravity took over, the falling coach leaving her suspended in midair for a second that felt like an eternity. The two coach wheels high in the air smashed back onto the road and the windowpanes shattered with the impact, sending glass everywhere.
Her whole body slammed onto the bench, bounced off, and then she landed on the floor of the carriage. Eva crashed on top of her, skirts and blankets and an arm suffocating her face.
All the air knocked from her lungs, Victoria gasped for breath, but none made it into her lungs. Again. Nothing. Again.
Air. Air into her chest.
Eva shifted above her, trying to untangle their limbs as the carriage lurched, bouncing at an out-of-control speed.
Another scream and she could swear that she heard through the floor of the carriage a body thump to the ground.
No. No, no, no.
NotPercival and Claude and Lawrence and Mr. Drewson.
All four were some of the best guards Reiner had. Always watching over her. Never falling asleep or losing focus. Always there. She rather adored all of them.
“Vic—Vicky—are you hurt?” Eva shouted in a panic as she managed to wedge her body off of Victoria’s chest, dragging herself half onto the back bench, even as her leg remained twisted and stuck under Victoria’s backside.
Freeing a hand, Victoria shoved the fabric covering her face away—her skirt or Eva’s, she couldn’t tell. With that, Victoria could see again and she had to dig her elbow into the carriage floor to lift her body enough to free Eva’s leg. “I—I am fine, I think.” The words only a strangled whisper as she was still trying to drag real breath into her lungs. “You—are you—”
“My leg is twisted, but I don’t think anything else is injured. Oh, hell, Vicky.” Eva’s look landed on Victoria’s face as Eva flopped herself fully onto the rear bench. Her hand reached out, her thumb dragging across the side of Victoria’s face. “That—where’s the blood from?” Her thumb came away from Victoria’s face with a bright red stain on the kidskin glove.
The carriage shook even more violently, the speed only increasing. It was tricky to get her legs under her enough to push herself onto the bouncing bench, but with Eva’s hand gripping her, Victoria managed to pull herself up onto the seat next to her aunt.
The trees were passing fast. Too fast.
“Is there anyone even driving us anymore?” Victoria looked out the broken window, the cold wind whipping in on them as every rut in the road sent them bouncing high off the bench.
Eva’s mouth pulled back in a strained grimace. “I think we wouldn’t be on the road anymore if no one was driving. We would have overturned long ago.”
